Many months ago, my EDH group and I took on a challenge: everyone chose a mono-coloured legendary creature and they were dealt out at random. We each had a month to build a deck around whomever we received. I received... Ascendant Evincar. It was quite possibly the worst possible thing I could have been given. See, I'm a man who likes a theme. I want to build around my general and Crovax... He doesn't really inspire anything, you know? Still, I was determined. I picked up a couple of random packs of Dominaria and pulled a Rat Colony. "How many does this make?" I pondered. I went home and took a look and found that I was now in possession of eleven.
Suddenly, I knew what I wanted to do with the deck...
I went into my local card shop and my man Scott was nice enough to help get me some more. Soon, I was at thirty. I had a Coat of Arms in a deck I was building that was just begging to come into this. When the time came for us to shuffle up our new decks, I dropped a Swamp and passed the turn. Turn two, I dropped a second Swamp and cast--you guessed it--Rat Colony. "How many copies do you have in the deck?" one of my opponents asked warily.
"Not enough," I explained as I passed the turn.
I only played one game with them and took the deck apart. It wasn't really my thing. Now I had to figure out what I was going to do with all these rats, though. That deck I'd borrowed a Coat of Arms from? It was Ghoulcaller Gisa and she might like to turn rats into an undead horde. Still, it would be slow. I wanted to go fast.
Aluren is easily one of my favorite cards in Magic. I gravitate towards elfball strategies and this ramps it big time. I started considering a Golgari deck that fused my thirty-something copies of Rat Colony with Aluren. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord seemed perfect for the deck. If I wasn't going to be killing opponents with giant rats, Jarad could eat a few and slaughter my opponents that way. Then I discovered Bloodbond March--a card that's terrible in EDH... but perfect here.
Suddenly, I had a strategy. It wasn't the best strategy, but it was A strategy: play rats, play my general, get Aluren and/or Bloodbond March out. Attack with massive rats or sacrifice massive rats for giggles.
News spread of what I was doing. Two really awesome dudes at my game store gave me some sexiness for this: a foil Rat Colony (Thank you, Damian!) and a Thrumming Stone (Thank you, Ryan!). As it stands, I'm now at forty copies of Rat Colony, with a few more to spare. Still, this could come down a bit, as needed. I feel like I could use more drawing power to get stuff, but... eh. I'm having a hard cutting anything from it. I realize that a lot of it seems repetitive, but I want to be able to bring back my enchantments (and/or Thrumming Stone) should they be sent to the great beyond.
